


Ace-to-six

by greedy_dancer



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Blanket Permission, M/M, Podfic Available, Podfic Welcome, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-14
Updated: 2013-01-14
Packaged: 2017-11-25 13:16:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/639280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greedy_dancer/pseuds/greedy_dancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i> It’s better if Bond can’t tell Q’s bluffing for all he’s worth; Bond is a formidable opponent but Q’s anything but stupid. This is a zero-sum game. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ace-to-six

**Author's Note:**

> Ace-to-six lowball: a variation of poker in which the goal is to get the weakest possible hand.

 

“You know, I can never tell what you’re thinking,” Bond tells him when they’re putting themselves back together in the cramped bathroom, and it’s a relief.

Q’s relieved because closeness to Bond makes him feel unsettled, off-balance, and sometimes he thinks there is no way Bond can’t know how hard Q must work to retain his composure whenever Bond is in proximity.

“Good,” he answers, dragging a hand through his sweaty hair. It’s so late that even Q-branch will be deserted, but Q needs to erase all traces of their encounters before he leaves. It’s part of his protocol.

He’s relieved because it’s better if Bond doesn’t realize he’s re-programming Q, every time they do this, here in the unused fifth floor bathroom and in the MI6 car park and in the cramped backseat of Bond’s car. Every time Bond leans across Q’s desk to be briefed about tech and doesn’t smile or joke or turn on the charm, just listens and nods. Every time Bond’s voice comes back in Q’s ear after a deafening, interminable, agonizing minute of absence.

Bond’s reprogramming Q to respond to his needs, his voice, his touch, like Q’s one of the weapons he makes for Bond, print-activated and fine-tuned to his specifications. Q knows that in all those moments, just like those weapons, he is nothing more than a tool to be used to Bond’s own ends and then discarded or lost or broken without second thought, mission accomplished.

Q allows it anyway, but he’s relieved Bond doesn’t know, because he doesn’t want to be one of Bond’s conquests. It’s safer this way. Q is too young, too valuable to die. He is the future, after all; he can’t end up as yet another line on an “ACQUAINTANCES: DECEASED” page in Bond’s file, another piece of evidence of Bond’s incredible losing streak.

It’s better if Bond thinks them both equally detached, two players with good hands and equal stakes in the game. It’s better if Bond can’t tell Q’s bluffing for all he’s worth; Bond is a formidable opponent but Q’s anything but stupid. This is a zero-sum game.

**

“You know, I can never tell what you’re thinking,” Bond tells him when they’re putting themselves back together in the cramped bathroom, and it’s a relief, and it’s a disappointment.

Disappointment, because. Of course it would be impossible. Unbelievably stupid. Unprofessional, impractical, probably life-threatening. Statistically lethal.

And yet.

And yet, Q sometimes wishes, for the briefest of seconds, that Bond would see through him, see what he’s doing to him, how his looks and touches and silences shape Q into someone different. He wants to be someone who can help Bond, someone who Bond knows can be more than his conquest or his weapon.

Sometimes he even wants to be in Bond’s file. There are no men in those files – Q knows; by now he has a more in-depth knowledge of these files than most, if not all, at MI6. He has a more in-depth knowledge of Bond than what’s in his files, too, so Q knows he can’t be the first, not the way Bond handles him. Q’s disappointed he won’t be in a file, if only to prove that the uninterrupted line of F’s in the gender column is not about Bond’s obsession with women, it’s about organisational blindness.

He wants to be the one to break the streak and survive to never tell the tale.

He’s disappointed, because sometimes, for the briefest moment, he wishes Bond saw through his bluff and called him on it. Wishes they could both forget the job and the country and the baggage, lay their cards on the table; walk away with the bank.

But Q’s anything but stupid. This is a zero-sum game.

“It’s only fair, after all,” he says. “I can’t tell what you’re thinking either.”

**

“You know, I can never tell what you’re thinking,” Bond tells Q when they’re putting themselves back together in the cramped bathroom.

“Good,” Q answers, dragging a hand through his sweaty hair. It’s so late that even Q-branch will be deserted, but Q needs to erase all traces of their encounters before he leaves. It’s part of his protocol.

“It’s only fair, after all,” Q says. “I can’t tell what you’re thinking either.”

Q thinks he sees a flicker of – something in the mirror, the briefest flash of emotion passing through Bond’s eyes before he chuckles.

“Good.”

If this is a zero-sum game, Q refuses to play.

**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to analise010 for looking this over and croissantkatie for Brit-picking. 
> 
> I'd love to know what you thought either here, on [DW](http://greedy-dancer.dreamwidth.org/649742.html), [LJ](http://greedy-dancer.livejournal.com/659110.html) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/greedydancer).

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Ace-to-six by greedy_dancer](https://archiveofourown.org/works/667765) by [fire_juggler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fire_juggler/pseuds/fire_juggler)




End file.
